TV advertising would have us believe that British and German troops took a break 100 years ago this week, but how peaceful was the Christmas “truce” on the Western Front in 1914?
The answer is not very: 98 British soldiers were killed on Christmas Eve – many by snipers, and 82 on Christmas Day.
The truce was called, says the author, “in part as a necessity to bury the large number of dead from recent attacks”.
Source: The Truce: The Day the War Stopped, by Chris Baker, Amberley Press, 2014